Bomanbridge: Scripted and non scripted content to appeal to Latin audiences

Bomanbridge is boosting its presence in Latin America with sport titles and crime series, two genres with enormous potential in the region, as well as wildlife and travel/food content. One of the key finished titles on Bomanbridge MIP Cancun 2022 slate is the Sports investigative documentary "A Game of Secrets" (1x90’/1x60’), a real-life story of Rui Pinto, a young Portuguese hacker whose anonymously authored Football Leaks site disclosed a whole network of dirty business dealings involving some of the biggest names in international football. "Pinto’s trial is currently ongoing in the Lisbon court, making this documentary one to watch and highly relevant", affirmed Gleyce Soares Freire, Head of Sales & Marketing to Señal News. The documentary was premiered recently on HBO Max Europe. "This is one of our major launches on our finished slate for the region, as football-related content is always a big hit in Latin America and sports documentaries in general are in high demand globally," she added.
The company has also deficit financed and took an IP position in the new crime series "Secrets of the Interrogation Room" (10x60’), produced by Zig Zag Productions, with two versions, the U.S. version entitled 'The Interrogation Room', narrated by American actress Vivica A. Fox ("Kill Bill"), produced for FilmRise and distributed by Bomanbridge outside the U.S. and Caribbean. "This version is set to launch early 2023, and we are launching it now for sales at MIP Cancun", expressed Soares Freire. The second version entitled "Rob Rinder's Interrogation Secrets" was produced for A+E Networks UK and recently premiered on Crime + Investigation UK. "We are representing this version outside the UK", she clarified. "Both versions of this true crime investigative series take a unique look at the battle of wits between police and suspects in some of the most disturbing US and UK criminal cases in recent years. Crime is a big seller, and we are getting a lot of movement on this title", said the executive.

On the wildlife and conservation front, Bomanbridge is launching "Valley of the Bears" (1x60’), a film capturing the challenges of bear-human co-habitation, nominated for “Breakthrough Film” at Jackson Wild Summit earlier this year, and the company also has the travel/food series "Paul Goes to Hollywood" (4x60’), which was commissioned by UKTV. "We recently sold the series to the US channel(s) Food Network and Cooking Channel, and we are looking forward to having the series on Latin America platforms too", indicated Soares Freire.

SCRIPTED AND NON SCRIPTED DEMAND
Bomanbridge has started its expansion in Latin America in 2018 and scripted has always been a popular genre in the region, especially with the strong and creative local productions. "The explosion of the digital space, with both global and strong local platforms, took the demand for the genre to another level with diversified original countries and languages, from global relevant storytelling to the strong presence of Turkish scripted and the new hit of Korean content in the region", described the Head of Sales & Marketing. "Through our investment in a First Look deal with veteran producer Phil Fairclough’s 'Two Wise Monkeys', we are in development for our first scripted project on the life of the legendary famous outlaw Bonnie Parker. Told from Bonnie’s first-person perspective, for the first time, we bring to life the story of the real Bonnie as a driven, intelligent and sensitive woman, starting during her early days before she met the infamous Clyde Barrow. Her story could be understood differently, deeper and a lot more intensely. It’s a project to follow, and we look forward to providing more updates in Q1 2023", she anticipated.

On the Non-Scripted front, subjects such as sustainability and unfiltered real-life stories, both local and global, are breaking into the platforms with a widespread audience demand for stories of impact and resilience told through innovative ways. "We were extremely happy to see the ground-breaking 'My Childhood, My Country: 20 Years in Afghanistan' (1x90’), produced by Phil Grabsky and Shoaib Sharifi, winning the Bafta TV Awards for Best Single Documentary earlier this year. We have been close to the project for a long time, and we took the production on for global distribution last year. In Latin America, this meaningful production was licensed to Disney Latam", Soares Freire said.

NEW PROJECTS
Bomanbridge is moving forward with invested development on new projects and pitching for commissions and/or presales. "We are very excited to launch at MIP Cancun the Non-Scripted project 'Carlos’ Mystery Shark Quest' (8x60’), with world’s leading serial shark cinematographer Carlos Gauna", highlighted the executive. Carlos, who’s from El Salvador, has become a unique voice interpreting never-before-seen shark behavior on his popular Youtube channel – “The Malibu Artist” – amassing millions of views with his incredible drone footage of sharks.

The company is pulling together the historical drama-documentary "The Real Mary" (1x90’/2x45’), based on the book “The Lost Mary", from author Dr. James Tabor. Portraying the revolutionary findings and concepts put forth in Tabor's book, the production will re-write the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus and considered by many the most powerful woman who ever lived. Bomanbridge is also developing and fundraising for one of their new food series “Cooking with Joss Stone” (10x60’). Joss Stone is a soul singer, world traveller, winner of the Masked Singer and a passionate vegetarian cook. "We currently have some of the funding from a US and Australian partners and expect to finalize the remainder shortly. Our plans are to kick off production in March 2023", said Soares Freire. "Content with global Music talent has a strong appeal with Latin American audiences, and we are expecting to have a good traction in the region with this new food series with Joss Stone, as she cooks up easy and delicious meals with a knowledgeable confidence", she mentioned.
A BETTER HORIZON
According to Soares Freire, the second half of 2022 has shown a positive recovery speed on the factual production, and Bomanbridge is expecting a stronger 2023 despite the global economic recession that post-pandemic world seems to be living now. "Global conflicts and high inflation may delay the sector’s fully recover, but we are certainly confident that we at Bomanbridge Media have many new spaces to fill", she affirmed. "As mergers happen and studios launch their own digital platforms, the indies lose some of that freedom to move quickly and content from the studios are mostly now locked within their own platforms. Independent companies like us have now new opportunities to invest more, experiment and bring our content and projects to a larger client base", she explained.

The company is currently in production for the series "The Great Wall with Ash Dykes" (6x60’), a co-production with CICC China and Zig Zag Productions, featuring an epic historical expedition documenting young British explorer Ash Dykes on his journey as he uncovers very hidden parts of the Great Wall of China. Insight TV has joined this unique project as a co-production broadcasting partner. "This is probably one of the most difficult projects we have ever co-produced, as entering and taking on such a mammoth project, in China, during the global pandemic was surely an audacious challenge. Nevertheless, through excellent teamwork from all our partners, we are collectively achieving this", noted Soares Freire. This is the second project Bomanbridge works with Ash Dykes. The company co-produced previously “Walking the Yangtze with Ash Dykes” (2x60’) to document Ash’s World record break as the first person to walk the entire Yangtze River. This series aired on multiple platforms, including National Geographic Channel Asia and MENA, and is coming soon to RTL Geo in Germany.
The new steps for Bomanbridge will be to open opportunities in the media landscape, especially digital and AVOD spaces, as well as fresh content available globally through their development and first-look deals. "We are launching for the market over 100 hours of fresh content and projects to discuss with platforms and potential partners", she stated. "For our projects specifically, we are hoping to find new copro partners, commissioning on key stories and pre-sales. We are also working on digital deals for both finished and library catalogue across SVOD and AVOD, which is a growing area in the region. For AVOD especially, we are keen to have partners to localize our content to further explore them in Latin America,", she concluded.